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Rousseau's Attachment To The Socio-Political Nature Of Man

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When The Social Contract was first published in 1762, it was greeted with public outrage and government-run censorship, which eventually led to Rousseau being a wanted man. Nevertheless, the text was one of the leading scripts that sparked the French Revolution only 32 years later. Other researchers of this field have examined Rousseau’s work and established several conclusions towards the application of Rousseau’s political philosophy - which has raised the questions such as “Does Rousseau believe that man should live in solitude and without communication with his environment? What is Rousseau’s attachment to so socio-political nature of man?” Through critical inquiry, I take liberty in claiming that Rousseau believed that man would indeed …show more content…

In his definition of the state of nature, humans are free to do whatever they want, regarding our desires and impulses to be natural ant not tempered by reason. Physical freedom is apparent, but so is the lack of morality and rationality. In the end, Rousseau believed that this state of nature serves as a better environment for human beings than the “slavery” of ones society – only to be influenced by a governing party and other individuals participating. Furthermore, Rousseau repeatedly refers to humans as noble savages in the state of nature – essentially stressing that the lack of personal property would result in the lack of violence and problems. Once we have created the concept of personal property, we become greedy, we have an urge; we begin to want more things we need, thus resulting in societal problems such as slavery, tyranny, and the objectification of other human beings for our own gain. Correspondingly, it’s clear – Through The Social Contract, Althusser, and Levin’s interpretations, that Rousseau believes man is unable to return to the state of nature, considering man is constantly in a perpetual state of war within society. Rousseau repeatedly claims that the state of nature dissolves when human beings create property (which, in turn, inspired

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